Wintering down south means daunting flight
you might imagine, migrate each autumn to South America and, a few years ago, a family of three youngsters was electronically tracked as they flew south. The biggest hazard these birds encounter is the vast Gulf of Mexico. Two of the birds being tracked literally disappeared during that part of their epic flight, with only one of them surviving to pitch up in its South American wintering ground.
Whilst our ospreys do not have to cross immense spans of ocean, they nevertheless face considerable challenges, especially as they receive no parental guidance and rely entirely upon instinct to navigate their journey. I recall hearing a few years ago of one young bird from this part of Scotland which got its navigation wrong and ended up in the South Atlantic, rather than in West Africa.
Meanwhile, those newly fledged birds must in these next few weeks, watch and learn from their parents while they can. It is essential they watch their parents as they hunt and then try to emulate them. They must quickly sharpen their fishing skills in order to ensure they are as practised in that art as possible before they take the plunge and head for Africa themselves. Remember they will travel strictly as individual birds. It is indeed a daunting start in life for these birds but a challenge they cannot resist.
The strong instinct to fly south, an instinct inherited by all our migratory birds, poses an interesting question. I have often been puzzled at reports I have read about James VI, when he became James I of England, which tell us that he deployed cormorants to fish on the Thames … and ospreys too. As ospreys, probably pretty common in those days, are migratory birds, the drive to obey instinct and head south as the summer wanes must surely have been insurmountable. Did the king have to have ospreys re-trained each summer or did those birds perhaps simply perish in captivity?
Cormorants, sedentary birds, are still employed in this way – though not on the Thames but in the Far East. But I have found no information to suggest that ospreys are used as a means of catching fish for human consumption anywhere in the world. I am sure migratory instinct would always prevail if such a scheme were to be attempted. Right now, this year’s youngsters are cautiously finding their wings and making their first attempts at catching fish. Adult ospreys often have to make several attempts before successfully rising with a fish firmly clasped in talons, which are configured so that two claws are back and two forward, as opposed to three forward and one back. This ensures a firmer grip on slippery prey. However, these young birds will inevitably be hard pressed to sustain themselves.
They must first learn to quarter the waters they are fishing, spot their scaly quarries near the surface, hover and then dive to hopefully grab their prey before rising, pausing briefly to shake surplus water from their plumage. Thus, at first the youngsters are likely to find themselves very frustrated with failure the norm. These August learning weeks are therefore vital to their future survival.
While instinct will eventually kick in, the August training is nevertheless, for these newly fledged youngsters, literally, make or break! Should they complete their journey successfully, they will remain in the fish rich waters of West Africa for the first two or three years of their lives, honing those vital skills before returning here to the land of their birth.